Comrades at Arms
by itachikage
Summary: When Kira attempts to help lacus escape from the archangel, his machine is damaged by friendly fire. Athrun, is an attempt to save his best friend, taes the strike to the Vesalius.
1. Chapter 1: Aboard the Vesalius

Here is my First non crossover fic. Hope you like.

The alarm sounded through the ship, crewmen scrambling for what they believed to be another ZAFT attack. Kira launched from the archangel, and opened a communication on all channel, "This is the pilot of the Mobile Suit, Strike from the Earth Forces ship Archangel. I am bringing Lacus Clyne to you. The Nazca class will cut its engines and we will be met only by the pilot of the Aegis. If you refuse, I can't guarantee her safety." Aboard the Archangel, an argument broke out between Lieutenant Badgiruel and Captain Ramius. "He did this on his own, without authorization! We should attack!" Lieutenant Badgiruel yelled. "We can't afford to risk the Strike turning against us! It's because of him that we were able to last this long!" Rameus countered. Badgiruel sat back in her chair, having been overruled. "Very well captain, but I will be reporting this to Headquarters." Rameus nodded, "The real threat is that Nazca class. I refuse to believe that it will remain idle. Level one battle stations! All weapons, lock on to the Nazca class and charge the Lohengrin and standby." The bridge became a flurry of activity. "Lieutenant La Flaga, standby in the Mobius Zero." She turned her attention to the front screen. The Aegis was approaching the Strike, and the Nazca class had cut its engine. It seemed like they were going through with Kira's terms.

The Aegis stopped in front of the Strike, Kira sent out over the communications, "Open your cockpit." When he'd opened his cockpit, Kira instructed Lacus to say something to prove to Athrun that it was really her. "I confirm its Lacus." Athrun said over the Communication. Kira nodded, and helped Lacus out of the cockpit, "Then prepare to receive her." Kira pushed her toward Athrun, who quickly pulled her in, "Kira, you come with us too. There isn't any reason for you to stay with the Earth Forces." Before Kira could answer, the engines of the Nazca roared to life, and a Mobile Suit launched. The Mobius launched as well.

"I knew it. Lieutenant Badgiruel, fire the Lohengrin." Captain Ramius ordered. Natarle nodded, and altered the aim slightly. She fired and the beam roared through space, directly at the Strike.

"Shit!" Kira yelled as the system informed him that he was in the path of the Lohengrin. So were Athrun and Lacus. He turned the Strike around and, using all of the thrust his suit could generate, knocked the Aegis out of the path of the beam. The Nazca had already evaded the attack and started to return fire. The legs of the Strike were caught inside the Lohengrin, and the radiation caused the entire machine to cease functioning, "Kira!" came two voices over the communication, as Kira lost consciousness.

"Lieutenant Badgiruel!" Captain Ramius screamed at her Vice-Captain. She just shook her head, "I did what I had to do. We can't afford to let someone with that much power do as he pleases!" Captain Ramius was literally shaking with rage, "Ensign Neumann, escort Lieutenant Badgiruel to the brig. Lieutenant La Flaga, retrieve the Strike, and hurry!" Mu la Flaga replied, "No can do. The Aegis has got him. It's all I can do to survive against Le Creuset. I'm sorry, Captain, but there isn't anything I can do." All around the bridge, the students from Heliopolis gasped. Over the same Channel that Kira had opened earlier, a voice was heard, "Commander Rau Le Creuset. Stop this at once. Do you intend to make this place a battlefield in the presence of a memorial representative such as myself?" Everyone gasped; the same person they'd threatened less than day ago was now saving them all. The ZAFT Mobile Suit retreated and the zero returned. The Aegis was long gone, docked at the Vesalius. The Strike along with it.

Several hours later, Kira woke up, slowly realizing that he wasn't on the archangel anymore. He sat up and found Lacus Clyne and Haro sleeping next to him. As he started climbing out of bed, the door opened, and someone he didn't know, a young man, with short green hair, peeked in. "Oh good, you're awake. Wait here; I'll go get Athrun and the commander." Before Kira could say anything, he was gone. Kira was vaguely aware that he was wearing a ZAFT uniform. Next to him, he heard someone yawn, and he turned to see Lacus stretching, and Haro was bouncing around the room. "Good morning, Kira. I'm very happy that you're alright." "Lacus, what happened? Are you alright? Where are we?" Haro made a sound that might have been laughing, and Lacus suppressed a chuckle, "My goodness. So many questions. In order, your Mobile suit was damaged protecting Athrun and I. I'm perfectly fine, thanks to you, and we're on the Vesalius, Athrun's ship."

The door opened again, and Athrun ran into the room, "Kira, how do you feel?" Kira shrugged, "I feel fin-"he started as he stood up, before a sudden pain in his chest brought him to his knees. "Kira!" both Lacus and Athrun yelled, as they ran over to him. A man with blonde hair, and a white mask, who entered the room at some point walked over as well, and helped Kira back into bed. "Easy now, you might not have taken any life threatening injuries, but you did fracture two ribs. Try to relax until the doctors clear you to leave."

Kira nodded through the pain, which slowly subsided thanks to whatever pain medicine they'd given him. Both Athrun and the man pulled up a chair and sat down next to him. "Now than, I'm sure that you have questions, so to start, I am Rau Le Creuset, the commander of this ship. You already know Athrun and Miss Clyne. Normally, we wouldn't treat an Earth Alliance soldier; however, we made an exception this time, as you did return Miss Clyne, and risked your own life to save both her and Athrun from your ship's cannon. "I'm not." Kira said, through the pain as he tried to sit up. Seeing the look on their faces he continued, "I'm not a soldier. I was just a student a Heliopolis, who got dragged into this." Athrun looked shocked for a moment before regaining his composure, "How can that be? You operate that Mobile suit so well. You must have been trained for it." Kira shook his head, "I rewrote the OS specifically so that I could operate it." Le Creuset nodded, "That would explain why it seemed like it was a custom OS instead of a mass produced one. I'm impressed that you could do that, with any previous training, in the middle of a battle, against some of our elites no less." Kira slumped back down, the pain was too much for him to keep sitting. "So what happens now? You torture and integrate me?" Lacus gasped, Athrun looked stunned, but Le Creuset stood up, "Now you rest. You may be questioned later, but we do not torture, contrary to what the alliance might believe. Sleep, when you wake up, we'll talk some more." Something about his voice seemed to put Kira at ease, as he fell asleep within minutes.

"Damn it! Lieutenant La Flaga yelled as he punched the wall of the bridge again, sending blood droplets flying through the air. "What the hell was she thinking? Trying to kill the kid like that? Now not only have we sent the kid to his death, but we're likely to join him if ZAFT attacks before my Zero is repaired." Captain Ramius placed a hand on Muu's shoulder, "I know, but all we can do is pray. Kira is a coordinator, so he has a better chance than most of us of stay alive on a ZAFT ship. We'll talk to admiral Halburton once we link up with the lunar fleet. Maybe they can do a prisoner exchange." La Flaga started walking through the ship, hand bleeding all the while, and he stop in front of the brig. He opened the door and said, "Are you proud of yourself? Not only have you doomed that kid to suffer, but all of us as well. All these civilians are going to die because you couldn't let one minor problem go." Natarle lifted her head up, "'Minor Problem'? She was the only thing keeping us alive. He would have killed us the same as I did." Muu ran in and grabbed her by the collar and slammed her up against the wall, "We had time to regroup! We would've made it to the Lunar Fleet if we still had the Strike to protect this ship! Now, my Zero's damaged, the Strike is gone, and we've got three ZAFT warships following us. If they decide to launch their mobile suits, we're done." He said, throwing her back in the cell. "If we make to the fleet, you can be sure that no one on this ship will back you up at your court martial. Half the crew is openly calling for your execution. And the other half agrees in secret." Lieutenant La Flaga leaves the room, leaving a stunned Lieutenant Badgiruel lying in the center of her cell.

Athrun stood over the observation area of the hanger. Inside, he saw a team of mechanics trying to fix the Strike. He was happy, truly happy, that he wouldn't have to fight against his friend. But part of him was scared. Kira was right. Coordinator or not, they still needed to know whatever he knows. ZAFT had never been known to use torture before, but if they're forced to, to protect the PLANTs, Athrun didn't doubt that commander Le Creuset would torture Kira. "What can I do? How can I help you? Kira…" Athrun said to no one. The door opened and Commander Le Creuset came in. "Athrun, I've been looking for you. I want your opinion on something." Athrun nodded, and gave his commander his full attention. "Now, as you know, we must get Miss Clyne back to the PLANTs. However, we cannot leave the Legged Ship alone to do as it pleases. What would you recommend?" Athrun was taken aback by this question. Normally, the commander would ask the other captains and higher tanking officers. He quickly regained his focus, thought for a moment and answered, "I'd leave the Gamow here to watch the legged ship, while the Vesalius escort Lacus back. During that time, we can acquire reinforcements, and I can convince Kira to provide us with information about that ship. If we play it right, we might be able to capture the ship, as opposed to destroying it. The downside, however, is that by the time we return, they would have linked with the Lunar fleet, so any attack would need to take into account the possibility of a large scale military operation."

Le Creuset nodded, "That would be my plan as well. What you mentioned about capturing the Legged Ship, as opposed to destroying it, is particularly impressive. I'd never even considered the idea. You are quite right, however, that it would give us an edge. My only concern is that Yzak and Dearka are unlikely to be content with simply watching. We will be dropping Miss Clyne with the Laconney team some time tonight. Afterwards, we'd best hurry back."

Athrun nodded, then mustered what courage he could and asked, "What about Kira- what about the Strike's pilot?" he corrected himself. Commander Le Creuset nodded, "I was hoping that you would accompany me as I go and have a chat with Mr. Yamato." He said as he turned and walked out the door. Athrun nodded, and followed.

Kira stood up for the first time since he arrived aboard this ship. The doctors had cleared him to begin working his muscles. He still felt some discomfort, but at least he could walk normally. He turned when he heard the sound of the door opening. Along with the usual mechanical chattering of Haro, he could hear two voices, Athrun and the voice he now knows to be Rau Le Creuset.

"It's good to see you up and about." Le Creuset says as he walks towards Kira. Kira couldn't help but be on guard, seeing as this man was the one who tried so hard to destroy the Archangel. Rau noticed this, and chuckled, "There is no need to be so defensive. I have no intention of torturing you. You are still a civilian from everything I've heard. We'll be heading to the Carpentaria base after our current operation. At which time, transport will be made available to you to transport you back to ORB." It took Kira a minute to fully grasp what was being said to him. "I'm… free to go?" Rau nodded, "Unless, of course you wish to remain. Normally, there would be a procedure to be followed. But with Athrun's recommendation, there shouldn't be a problem."

"By current operation, you mean…" Kira started, afraid to finish the thought. Le Creuset nodded. "I'm afraid that it can't be helped. We cannot allow that ship to join up with the eighth fleet. Perhaps with your help, we might be able to prevent the worst case scenario." Kira understood exactly what he was saying. They would spare the crew if Kira joined ZAFT. Kira just couldn't decide. Athrun walk over to his best friend, giving what support he could. "You still have some time to decide. I would rather avoid unnecessary bloodshed if it can be helped. If you can convince the crew to abandon ship, or at least send out the civilians, I promise that they will not be harmed." Commander Le Creuset said, as he places a ZAFT red uniform at the foot of Kira's bed. "You have twenty-four hours before we have to engage the Legged Ship. Inform the guard outside if you decide." He says as he leaves the room.

Kira turns to Lacus and Athrun. "I'm really sorry. But, please, I need some time to think." Lacus looked like she might want to say something, but Athrun took her by the shoulder. "I'm sorry that you got put in this situation. I hope that you'll think it over." Athrun left, dragging Lacus with him.

"Athrun, wait. Kira needs someone to support him…" Athrun shook his head. "No. This has to be his decision. His choices are either let his friends die, or betray them and what they stand for. For Kira, there isn't any more difficult choice. He needs some time to think, without us there." Lacus nodded, but Athrun could tell that she still want to go and comfort him.

"Athrun, what's wrong?" The head mechanic asked when he saw Athrun and Lacus walking toward him in the hanger. "Something's not wrong with your machine, is there?" Athrun shook his head, "No, I was wondering, what is status of that captured mobile suit?" The mechanic brought up the data, "luckily, the spare parts made for the Duel are compatible. All that's left is repairing the circuits that were destroyed from the radiation of the positron cannon. I'm amazed at the versatility of this machine. From what we'd seen in combat, it had three different equipment packs. But it had the blueprints for five additional packs. We're not sure if they weren't built or just couldn't be salvaged. Either way, it'll have to make do with the equipment it had until these can be made."

Athrun thanked him for the help and left the hanger. As he walked through the hall, Lacus asked him, "Why were you worried about the Strike?" Athrun just sighed, "I don't even know."

After they'd left the room, Kira collapsed onto the bed. He now knew why the doctor had warned him not to overdo it. The words of that Commander at Artemis came flooding back to him, "But you're already a traitor to your fellow Coordinators." He never thought of himself as a traitor. All he'd ever done was protect his friends. Now he had to decide what he should do. Protect his friends by betraying them, or ignore it, and hope that they'll be alright, knowing that he'd be condemning them to death. "Damn it!" He yelled as he punched his pillow. Sai, Miriallia, Tolle, Kuzzey. Flay, and even Mu and Murrue. He couldn't just betray them.

He couldn't make up his mind. His friends were the whole reason that he piloted the Strike. Could he really use it against them, even if it's to help them? He thinks back to the last time he was aboard the Archangel. Sai and Miriallia helping him take Lacus back. Flay's outrage that he couldn't save her father. What made that worse was the fact that she was right. If he'd gone after the GINNs, he might have been able to save him. Instead, he got caught up with his stalemate with Athrun.

"I can't go back." Kira said as he finally made up his mind. "I broke my promise to Flay. The least I can do is make sure that she and everyone else survive. Even if they hate me for it…" Kira changes into the uniform and says to one of the guards outside, "Tell him I've decided." The guard nods and run off while Kira sits back on his bed.

Athrun takes Lacus back to her quarters and decides that he should check on Kira. As he walks towards the infirmary, he sees Commander Le Creuset and one of the guards walking towards him. Le Creuset smiles, "Athrun, I'm glad we ran into you." Athrun salutes, "Why might that be, sir?" Le Creuset motions for Athrun to follow. "Your friend says that he's made up his mind." Athrun gasps, and follows.

The remaining guard salutes as they approach and the door opens. Athrun step into the room and he sees his best friend standing there, dressed in a ZAFT elite uniform. Le Creuset smiles, "So, I assume that you will remain with ZAFT?" Kira nods. Athrun can't suppress a smile. He's back. His best friend is finally back.

Commander Le Creuset dismisses the guards. "Athrun, please escort Kira to the conference room. I will be along shortly." Athrun salutes and Le Creuset leaves. Kira turns to his friend. "I'm glad that we can work together again." Kira nods, "Me too, Athrun. Lead the way, sir." He responds emphasizing the last word. Athrun laugh, "First thing you need to know about being a ZAFT soldier. Don't call any one 'sir' unless they are the captain, the commander, or a FAITH officer. Everyone calls everyone by names." He opens the door and they each take a seat. It's a plain looking conference room. Ten chairs arranged around a circular table. Behind the table is a large monitor. The door opens, and Le Creuset walks in, accompanied by a number of other soldiers.

They take their seats and he starts, "Let's get introductions out of the way. Everyone, this is Kira Yamato. He will be the pilot of the Strike. Kira, this is Captain Ades,-"indicating a man, slightly shorter than himself, with short brown hair, "Captain of the Vesalius." Kira nodded, and Rau continued, "Your fellow pilots, Yzak Joule," indicating a young man with grey hair and a scowl on his face, "Dearka Elsman," a dark skinned man with blond hair. "Nicol Amalfi," pointing to the green-haired pilot who Kira'd meet earlier, "And, of course, you know Athrun." Kira nods to each of the pilot, earning a scoff from Yzak. "Finally, this is Burt Heim, Lead mechanic. He's in charge of getting the Strike back in working order."

The mechanic says to Kira, "Overall, the Strike is ready for combat. However the only equipment that we have is the Aile Strike. Other packs are being made, but they won't be ready in time for the next operation." Commander Le Creuset smiles, "Very well. The legged ship has already linked up with the eighth fleet. The Vesalius, The Gamow, and The Zeigler will launch an assault on the eighth fleet. Meanwhile, the five pilots here will capture the Legged Ship." Yzak stood up and roared, "Why the hell are we capturing it?! I thought we were going to destroy it!" Rau raised one hand to stop him, "That is our backup plan, but if we can capture it, all the better. I believe that we shouldn't have much trouble with Kira's help." Yzak sat down, still clearly mad. Dearka turns to Kira, "If you're on our side, then why don't you give us whatever information you have about the Legged Ship?"

Rau brings up the ships over schematics. Kira nods, "The armaments include two Positron cannons, twin dual barreled high energy beam cannons, a total of forty missile launcher, and two one-hundred and ten centimeter Linear Cannons on either side. There are also sixteen, seventy-five millimeter CIWS, but those wouldn't pose much of a threat to any mobile suit with Phase shift armor." As Kira lists off the weapons, the schematic adds them to the listing, along with an approximate effective range and area of effect. The captain and commander began talking, and Yzak turned on Kira, "I don't know what kind of game you think you're playing, but I'm not buying it." And he storms out of the rooms. Dearka nods and walks out.

"I'm sorry about them." Nicol says as he extends his hand. Kira reaches out and shakes it, "Don't worry about it. I expected some people to doubt me." Nicol nodded, "They'll come around eventually." Athrun nodded, but didn't say anything. "Kira, come over here." Le Creuset calls out. Kira stood up and walked over to his new commander. "Yes, sir?" he said, still a little uneasy. "For obvious reasons, we can't give you free reign to go wherever you wish. Athrun will act as your escort. We'll be moving out at midnight, and the operation will begin at noon tomorrow. In the meantime, get some rest." Kira nodded, and left the room, Athrun following behind him.

"Kira!" said a familiar voice as Kira left the room. Turning to the voice, he gets a face full of pink hair. "Lacus?" he says as he gets pushed back by her tackling hug. She nods, "So, you're staying?" she asks, and he nods, "Yeah, I'm staying." The Lacus and Kira follow Athrun through the ship, finally stopping in front of the mess hall. "You hungry, Kira?" Athrun says to his friend. Kira's stomach answers for him, getting a laugh from his friends.

Athrun gets them each a tray of food, Kira and Lacus sat at the table. "Kira, are you okay? You don't look so good." Kira shakes his head, "I'm fine, just nervous. Not just because most of them don't trust me, but also because we're going up against the Archangel." Athrun sit across from his friend, and slide the tray across the table. "Don't stress over that now. You don't need to worry about Yzak and Dearka. The might not trust you yet, but they won't attack you from behind. Just fight with them for a while. They'll get over it eventually." Kira nods and starts eating. "This food is way better than the Archangel's." Lacus laughs.

"Hey, Athrun? Can we go to the hanger?" Kira asks after they drop Lacus back at her room. Athrun stops in surprise, temporarily stunned by the question. "Why?" he asks. "I need something to help me calm down and working on the Strike is the only thing I can do." Kira answers slightly annoyed that the only thing he can do is the very thing he wanted to avoid when he was on the Archangel. Athrun nods, understanding the feeling. He'd felt the same way after the Bloody Valentine. "Alright, let's go. I doubt that they'll let you actually work on the Strike, but you might be able to do something." Kira nods, "I know."

Murrue Ramius boarded the Menelaus, followed closely by Mu La Flaga. Following the soldier sent to meet them, they are brought to the bridge. "Admiral Halberton, it is a pleasure to meet you again." She says as she salutes her superior. He salutes back, "I didn't think that I would see any of you after I'd heard of the collapse of Heliopolis. It is wonderful to see you all again." He motions for them to come with him, and leave the bridge.

"You all did well to make it this far. The archangel will join the eighth fleet and journey to Josh-a, Alaska. I would love the have the opportunity to talk with not only all of you, but also the students you mentioned in your communication." Murrue nods sorrowfully, "About that sir, in a previous engagement, the Strike was captured." Halberton turned, "What?! How did this happen?" Murrue spent the next ten minutes, explaining how they'd found the pod, used Lacus to ensure they survived the survival of the Archangel during the destruction of the advance fleet, and how Kira decided not to let this continue. "When the Nazca reactivated its engine, I order Ensign Badgiruel to fire the Lohengrin. She altered the course, throwing off what could have been a clean hit on the enemy ship to attempt to destroy the Strike. Afterwards, the pilot of the Aegis captured the Strike, and we were only saved from destruction by Miss Clyne ordering the enemy commander to withdraw."

Halberton sunk into the chair in his office, "I see. I do not look forward to informing Mr. Yamato's parents that their son was captured because one of my subordinates wanted to take matters into their own hands. What happened to Ensign Badgiruel?" "We detained her and locked her in the brig. I intended to report this to you during our debriefing." He nodded, "Very well, keep her there. I will have a chat with her in due time. We should reach the Alaska base descent point by noon tomorrow. The Menelaus and Archangel will descend, and the remaining fleet will head to our lunar base."

Kira spent most of the night fiddling with the settings for the Aile Striker pack. Just as he was getting ready to go back to his temporary quarters, he heard a voice behind him, "Hey, Kira!" Turning, he saw Athrun's friend, Nicol. "I noticed that your Strike seemed to have a more complete OS than the others. Do you think you could help me optimize Blitz's?" Kira was a little surprised by the request. "Oh, yeah that shouldn't be a problem." He followed Nicol over to the Blitz and began balancing the performance of the various systems. "Hey, Nicol!" He said when he noticed something. Nicol appeared just outside the cockpit. "Did you know that the mirage colloid dispersers were locked apart from Phase shift? I should be able to integrate the two of them as a separate setting for the Phase Shift. You'd be able to keep the invisibility of the Mirage colloid and improve the armor of the Phase Shift. The only downside would be greatly increase energy consumption."

Nicol smiled, "That would be great, Kira! I always thought that that was the only weakness to the Blitz. If you can really do that, I'd be grateful." Kira nods, "Alright, I'll hopefully be able to have it done within an hour." Nicol nods, "Great, let me know if you need anything." "A cup of coffee would be great. I'm exhausted." He runs off and Kira turns his attention back to the Blitz. After about fifteen minutes, just as he'd removed the system locking the two feature apart, Nicol comes back with a half dozen cups, "Sorry about the wait. I wasn't sure how you take your coffee, so I brought some of everything." Kira takes one of the cups, "Anything's fine. You really shouldn't have worried about it." Nicol shakes his head, "Not really. I usually bring coffee to the night crew, so this isn't that big a deal." Kira takes a sip of the coffee, and goes back to work. He wasn't sure if the coffee was better than he'd had on the archangel, or if he was just more tired than he'd ever been on the archangel, but it seemed to help a lot more than it used to.

He finished just after two that morning and spent the next ten minutes telling Nicol how he'd set up the armored colloid. Finally, he woke up Athrun, who'd fallen asleep in the corner of the hanger, and they left, with Kira being forced to listen to how Athrun wasn't sleeping, just resting his eyes. Kira finally crawled into bed at quarter to three, and fell asleep almost at once.

Kira woke up to someone shaking him, and opened his eyes to see Athrun and Nicol standing next to him. "Come on, Commander Le Creuset is calling all the pilots to the briefing room." Kira nods and gets up, and puts on his uniform. As he follows the two of them, Nicol grabs his attention, "Athrun, you should really get Kira to take a look at the Aegis. He optimized the OS, reconfigured the Phase Shift, and integrated the Mirage collide in about two hours. I feel like it could take the entire lunar base myself." Kira smiles, "Glad you like it, but I wouldn't try out the armored colloid for now. In theory it should work, but I wouldn't want you to risk your life on it without first testing whether it would work." Nicol shook his head, "I tested it earlier. I had a pilot from the Gamow try and shoot me with its CIWS while I was cloaked and it didn't even phase it. You did great!" Kira nods, "Not a problem. Let me know if anything else needs adjusting. If I knew you better, I might have been able to personalize it to your fighting style. I'm sure that I could make the Aegis perfect, just from how well I know Athrun." Athrun chuckles, "I don't doubt that."

They arrive just after ten. They're greeted by Le Creuset, "Good morning. Normally I'd reprimand you for being late, but since you need to get Kira, I don't think that will be necessary." The three salute and Nicol says, "I'm sorry, sir. I kept Kira up late last night helping me work on the Blitz." Yzak jumps up, "Nicol! What the hell were you thinking!? We can't trust this guy. He might have rigged it to explode for all you know!" Athrun was about to jump to his friend's defense, but Nicol beat him to it. "Shut up, Yzak! I was there the entire time. I double checked all the systems that were altered and tested every change. All that he did was make the Blitz almost twice as efficient and improve all attributes." That shut Yzak up. When the normally nice, well-mannered Nicol starts yelling, you know you did something wrong.

Rau stopped it before it can go any further. "That's enough, both of you. Yzak, that comment was uncalled for. I wouldn't have put Kira on this operation if I didn't trust him." Yzak sat down, with the three others followed suit. "Now that everyone is here, we will begin the mission briefing for operation: CounterStrike."

* * *

That's chapter one. Should upload another today.


	2. Chapter 2: Operation CounterStrike

Chapter two! Kira meets the Archangel again

* * *

Le Creuset brought up a space map, "Operation: CounterStrike is a military operation with the intention to capture or failing that, destroy the Earth Force's Archangel. Our force will consist of the Gamow, Zeigler, and the flagship will be the Vesalius. Overall, we will have twelve GINNs and the five captured mobile suits. The GINNs will engage the enemy fleet, clearing a path to the Archangel. At which time, the Strike, piloted by Kira Yamato will attempt to reason with the crew and convince them to abandon ship. If this proves unsuccessful, he will convince them to send out any civilians and the remaining four units will engage. If possible, I want that ship and it crew to be captured. If that cannot be done, you may destroy it."

As he explained the operation, the map indicated the size of the enemy force, and the projected plan. "Overall, this is not a very difficult operation. However, after our arrival, we will have only fifteen minutes before it reaches the atmospheric entry interface over the Alaska base and therefore, out of our effective combat range. I would like to emphasize that our objective is not to destroy the Eighth Fleet. If our operation succeeds or fails, withdraw and do not engage them any more than needed. Are there any questions?" he concludes. Yzak stands, "Why are you entrusting this operation to HIM? Me or Dearka could go in and destroy it easily, but you insist on letting him take the lead." Kira starts to rise, but Rau stops him, "You are right about that, Yzak. However, I assured Kira that we would avoid unnecessary deaths on his operation. Also, that warship is far more powerful than our Nazca class. If we were to Mass produce something with similar characteristics, this war would be over." Yzak sits down, clearly not happy with the answer.

Dearka stands next, "My question isn't for you, Commander. It's for you." He says as he turns to Kira, "We're fighting against your old ship. How do we know that you won't betray us? And will you be able to fight against them if negotiations break down?" Kira doesn't answer for a minute leading to Dearka almost sitting down, believing that he had his answer. "I don't betray my comrades. If you don't believe me, just ask Athrun. And as to whether I'll be able fight against them, you're right I probably won't be able to. But if it has to be done, I'll cover you while you handle, since according to Yzak, you wouldn't have any problems." Kira answers, stunning the room. Everyone was silent. None of them expected him to say that. "But you already betrayed the Earth Forces. How can we trust?" Yzak says, his voice lacking the anger that it had earlier. Kira shook his head, "I never joined the Earth Forces. All I ever wanted was to protect my friends. I joined ZAFT because it was the best way to achieve that. You're right that without the strike, the Archangel wouldn't stand a chance. At least this way, they have a chance. If you think that I'm betraying you, go ahead and shoot me."

Yzak couldn't hide his surprise. He sat down with a look of shock clear on his face. After that, there was silence. Le Creuset spoke, "If there are no more questions, stand by aboard your machines. We will relay instructions once the operation begins." They stand and salute, walking out, Athrun leading the way. Kira climbs into the Strike's cockpit for the first time since he left the Archangel. Going over the system check, he makes some adjustments to the settings for the replacement legs, and to optimize performance with the Aile striker pack after he'd modified it. At quarter of noon, a voice came through the strikes communication system. "Operation: CounterStrike has begun. All mobile suit pilots are to stand by aboard their machines. Be prepared to launch at any time. Kira body tenses as he hears the orders. "No going back now." He says to himself.

At exactly noon, Kira receives the order he'd been dreading. "All mobile suits involved in the second part of Operation: CounterStrike are to launch." Kira nods, giving himself one more moment to get up the courage before saying over the communication, "This is Kira, Strike is launching," and stepping onto the catapult. Almost at once, he's propelled forward, and activates his booster just as he reaches the end. The extra boost ensures that he moves at maximum speed through the chaotic battlefield. There, in the distance, is his target. His old ship. The Archangel.

The Archangel was at level one battle stations. The bridge was strangely quiet. They'd been given orders not to get involved in the battle, and to continue on to the target point. Captain Ramius was about to open a communication to the Menelaus, when Kuzzey gets an incoming signal. "Five signals, matching Duel, Buster, Blitz, Aegis, and…" he said as the audibly gulped. Everyone look at him. "And strike. GAT X105 Aile Strike." The Bridge was in chaos. The machine they'd learned to rely on was coming after them. To all of them, it also seemed to spell the end of the old friend, Kira Yamato. Until, "Archangel, do you copy? This is Kira Yamato."

"Kira, it's time to start." came Athrun's voice over the radio. Kira replied, "I know. I'll be using frequency five." He attunes it to what he knows the Archangel's bridge and inputs the access code. After confirming the connection, he takes one more breath and starts. "Archangel, do you copy? This is Kira Yamato." It only took a second until he got a response. "Kira! Is it really you?" came the familiar voice of Miriallia Haw. Kira felt a twinge of regret when he answers, "It's me. Can you put the Captain on?" A few seconds later, "Kira, I'm so glad that you're alright." "Miss Murrue, I'm sorry but please, order the crew to abandon ship." Kira says, hoping that she agrees, and knowing that it won't be enough. "Kira is this some kind of joke?" came the reply, and even over the communication, he can tell that his words have deeply affected everyone on the bridge. "No, it's not a joke. Please, just surrender. I don't want any of you to die."

Kira hears something on the other end, and a new voice, "Kid, come on, stop messing around." Came the voice of Mu La Flaga. "Please, this is your last chance. If you won't, at least order the refugees to evacuate." A long silence, than Kira sees a transport ship leave through the hanger. "That's everyone who is going to evacuate. If you're going to destroy us, go ahead and try." Captain Ramius says, and before Kira can get a word in, she cuts him off and scrambles the frequency. He switches back to the ZAFT frequency. "That's all I can do. The rest is up to you." Kira says, fighting off tears.

The four machines push forward. As soon as they do, a familiar mobile armor launches and is immediately engaged by the buster. The Archangel is trying desperately to fight back. Athrun and Nicol start by attacking all the weapons on either side. While they do that, Kira and Yzak engage the mobile armors sent from the Eighth fleet. Despite their contrary personalities, the two work well together. The Duel draws both beam sabers and Strike protects them both, all the while shooting any mobile armor that managing to slip past the Duel.

The battle seems to be going in their favor, until Kira heard a scream over the radio. Looking around, Kira saw that Mu had managed to beat Dearka, and the buster crashed onto the Archangel. Yzak charged straight towards the ship, trying to rescue his friend. Athrun and Nicol ran interference on the Archangel. Kira intended to assist them, until he saw the Mobius zero approaching the Duel from behind. None of the others even noticed that he was there. Kira took aim at the man he'd once considered something of a mentor and started firing. The Mobius did a barrel roll and fired straight at Kira. As the battle raged on, he started to realize why Dearka had been beaten. Keeping track of all four gun barrels and the main cannon with hard enough with an amateur piloting it, But against Mu, Kira was having trouble dealing with just the main cannon, barely managing to dodge the rest. He was starting to run low on energy. He only had enough energy for another five shots, assuming he wasn't hit. Any more than that and his Phase shift would go down, and he'd be left defenseless. The more he thought about it, the clearer the battle became. He didn't have any problem shooting down two his gun barrels with one shot. Then he dodged the return fire, severing one of the cables with a beam saber slash. The barrel crashes into the last, leaving him with only the main cannon. Kira goes in to finishes it, when suddenly, he get dragged away by the Aegis.

"Kira, snap out of it! It's over! The archangel is already outside our range." Athrun calls to him. Only when the Mobius lands on the Archangel, does Kira realize that the Archangel was glowing red, heated by the friction of the atmosphere. They were already going through reentry. The Eighth Fleet was all but annihilated. Only four out of the twenty five ships that once composed the mighty fleet remained. The Menelaus succeeded in reentry just before the archangel, and the rest were retreating towards lunar orbit. They'd lost Dearka, the Buster, ten GINNs and the Ziegler, but ultimately, they retreated to the Vesalius.

None of them said anything as they changed back into their uniforms. They were called in for the debriefing. They filed into the briefing room. Le Creuset enters several minutes later, followed by Captain Ades. They stand in the front of the room and begin, "Operation: CounterStrike was a failure. However, the earth forces have been dealt a critical wound. With the destruction of the eighth fleet, the lunar base won't be able launch any attacks at the PLANTs. Does anyone know why we lost today?" Yzak stands, "because we didn't launch at the beginning of the battle." Le Creuset shakes his head, "That would have wasted more energy. None of your machines had any energy to spare." Nicol rose next. "Because we didn't back up Dearka in his fight?" Again he shakes his head. "You would have been destroyed by the weapons of the Archangel. It was only because of that that he and Kira were able to concentrate on the Mobile armor." Kira rises next, "It was because I took too long talking to them. It just bought them more time to escape." Again wrong. "You saved innocent lives. And it still wouldn't have made much of a difference. If you had more energy, than maybe. But all four machines were running on empty." Athrun rose last, "We just got unlucky." Le Creuset smiles, "Correct. That battle could have gone either way. We lost this time and it cost us a comrade. We won't let it happen again." Kira nods and stands, "There is still a chance that he's alive. The crew of the Archangel aren't bad people. I doubt that they'd kill him just because he was a coordinator. They'll take him prisoner, but at least he's alive." Yzak nods, "I know. We'll get him back." "That's the spirit. We'll be descending to Gibraltar. Get ready." Le Creuset says as he stands. They salute and he leaves.

The four of them leave and as they are about to leave, Yzak surprises them, "Kira, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have doubted you." He says as he bows. Kira just shakes his head, "Don't worry about it. I'd have done the same thing." The three go to their respective quarters to pack for Gibraltar, while Kira head to the hanger. He sits and talks with the maintenance crew, waiting for them to get their orders. After about an hour, Yzak joins him, and they start talking. Nicol arrives thirty minutes later, and give them a time frame. "We'll be descending at six tomorrow morning." Kira stretches, "Great, I might be able to catch up on some rest." Nicol starts apologizing. "Don't worry about it. I've stayed up later doing classwork and Heliopolis." Kira says to stops him. "What the heck are you guys talking about?" Yzak asks looking from one to the other. Kira nods, "That's right, I forgot that you didn't know. Nicol asked me to help him optimize the Blitz's OS, and it kept me up until two."

Yzak was silent for a moment then said to Kira, "Could you do the same thing for the Duel?" Kira smiles, "Not a problem, It'll give me something to do while we wait." Yzak unlocks the OS and Kira starts working. He begins by allocating a portion of the main power source to the beam sabers, ensuring that it won't run out just because he took too many hits. Next he adjusts the power distribution to the limbs and booster, further increasing the already considerable speed. Then, he activates backup energy cells to allow the Duel to compensate for the increased performance of the machine without losing operational time. When he finally finishes, he finds that he's attracted something of a crowd. The vast majority of the maintenance crew had stopped working and watched Kira. The whole process took a little over an hour and a half, during which time Athrun showed up. The three pilots watch as Yzak took the Duel out for a test, and marveled at incredible speed it showed. Even with the intense training that they'd gone through, Nicol and Athrun could barely see it move. When he came back he joked, "Now we know why we didn't succeeded this morning. You didn't work on Dearka's, Athrun's, and mine. We'd have crushed them with this. I never thought it would make that much of a difference."

Kira decided to take a rest after they finished the tests on the Duel. Athrun was gracious enough to let him rest before working on the Aegis. Kira rested in the infirmary, which had become his quarters. He heads straight to the hanger. Athrun left the OS unlocked on the Aegis and Kira got straight to work. He reconfigured the power grid, lessening the energy cost of the energy beam in armor mode, also lessening the cost of changing form. Next, he adjusts the phase shift on the shield, allowing it to reflect beams instead of just blocking them. Like with the Duel, a portion of the main battery is allocated to the energy saber. Finally he fine tunes the main systems, making them more compatible with Athrun fighting style. It takes a lot longer than with the others, three and a half hour from start to finish and by the time he's done, all the pilots have woken and come down to the hanger. Athrun launches to do a few tests. At quarter of six, the remaining three pilots launch and enter the descent pod. Athrun follows shortly afterwards, and the pod drops at exactly six o'clock.

"That was a hell of a ride." Yzak remarks, causing the other three to laugh. The pilots report to the Gibraltar personnel office. They are met by the regional commander, Marco Morrassim. "You are the pilots from the Le Creuset team?" he asks. They salute and answer, "Yes, sir" he nods, "you for are to be assembled as the Zala team, and are to assist Commander Waltfeld in maintaining control of the area." They salute and the commanders leave to arrange transport. Yzak leads the other two to the mess hall and Kira enjoy the meal more than any since he left Heliopolis. Athrun finds them just as Kira comes back with ice cream, "What? Nothing for me?" Athrun jokes. They laugh and eat the ice cream.

Athrun leads them back to their machines, "Our transports are on the third runway. Pick a plane and we'll head out." Kira climbs onto the Strike and follows the other to the runway. After he stores the mobile suit, he sits in the back of the transport. The pilot checks back in five minutes, "We'll be taking off in about ten minutes. It'll be an hour before we reach the Lesseps." Kira nods, and closes his eyes, falling fast asleep before they take off. He wakes forty-five minutes later, when the ships starts shaking violently. Before he can get up, the pilots voice echoes over the intercom, "We're under attack! Board your machine! If worse comes to worst, we'll eject you." Kira runs through the back door and rushes into the Strikes cockpit. "We're ejecting you, brace yourself!" the pilot said, as the cargo bay door opened.

The wind pressure blasts the strike out of the ship. Kira fights the wind and turns his machine. On his way down, he shoots at the aircrafts that were shooting at the transport. Two of them go down, but the last takes a hit to the wing and turns towards Kira. Kira turns on the phase shift just in time, and two blasts hit the strike, sending it plummeting down to the desert. Kira regains control, seconds before he crashes to earth. With the last of his energy, he powers the boosters and slows his fall. The machine crashes and a surge of pain shoot through his arm, and he blacks out.

Yzak, Nicol, and Athrun land safely, and wait at the runway for Kira. When the transport appears on the runway, they immediately know that something is wrong. Burns and dents cover the plane, the cargo bay door was open, and half was broken off. As soon as the plane had stopped, the three run to the cockpit. The pilot is running towards them, "We were attacked en route. I had to eject him in order to make sure they didn't shot him down." "What!" the four yelled. Athrun turned to the fourth voice. There was a tall man, wearing sunglasses, yelling on the phone. "Scramble the copters! Everyone available should be out there looking for that kid!" he yelled onto the phone. He looks to the pilots, "Sorry, but for obvious reasons, we'll be postponing the welcome party. Where was he dropped?" he asks the transport pilot. "Point eighty-seven, district four." He shakes his head, "Damn it. That area is controlled by Blue Cosmos."

Kira slowly regained consciousness, and found himself on a bed in a small concrete room. There were no windows, and only one door. He could hear muttering on the other side, "Is that kid a coordinator? I heard a rumor that the Strike defected to ZAFT." The first said. "Don't believe everything you hear. For now, keep quiet about it. If he's a coordinator, we'll kill him. For all we know, he might've been captured." A voice answered. Kira heard footsteps walking toward him, and rushed back to the bed as quietly as he could. Just as he pulled the covers over him, the door opens and two men walk in. One of them, slightly shorter than the other, with a bold head, had a gun drawn. He quickly looked around and holstered it. The second, tall with short red hair, walked over to the bed and started shaking Kira. "Hey, kid, are you okay?"

Kira waited a second, then pretended to wake up, then said to the men, "Where am I? What happened?" Kira tries to sit up, but when he attempts to put his wait on his left arm, he collapse screaming. The man rushes to support him, "Easy now, your damn near broke your arm. You're in the middle of desert, about a hundred miles east of the town of tassel. You're mobile suit fell out of the sky yesterday morning. Any idea how that happened?"

Kira froze for a second, he hadn't thought about how to explain how that happened. If he told the truth, they'd kill him. Quickly, he said, acting a natural as possible, "I was fighting against ZAFT in the earth's atmosphere, my machine was shot and crashed through the atmosphere. I need to get to Alaska…" he says, trying to get up, until the pain got to be too much.

The bald man said from the door, "The only way that you'd get to Alaska is to fight your way through Gibraltar. Why don't you wait here? There's an earth force's ship that'll be arrive at our port in a week. They'd be able to take you to JOSH-A. Until then, just get some rest, and let that arm of yours heal. This is a small town and we don't have any doctors." Kira nods and lies back down. He falls asleep a few minutes after they leave.

When Kira wakes up, the door is open. Its late in the afternoon, as the last of the daylight was fading. There was a commotion in the town square. Kira carefully got up and walked out the door. In the center of town, all the towns' folk were arguing with a group of people. Arguing with the bald man from earlier was someone that Kira didn't think he'd ever see again. A girl with short blonde hair and green eyes. The same girl he'd pushed into the shelter at Heliopolis.

"Why are you always so intent on fighting without any help? We should join forces, for the preservation of our blue and pure world!" the bald man yelled, and the cry was quickly taken up by the surrounding citizens. Kira froze in terror, his worst fears realized. This town was Blue Cosmos. The girl yelled, "All we want is to protect our homes and our families! All we want from you is for you to sell us the weapons like you agreed to." He sighed and motions to several of his compatriots. "Here, all of the weapons you asked for, plus the ammo and equipment. Now, if you'll just pay for them, you'll be free to take them." The large, bulking man, stepped from behind the girl and handed a wad of money, and bent down and picked up four of the crates. All the townsfolk helped to pack the weapons into the jeep, leaving Kira alone. Kira mind raced, trying to find some way to escape. If they found out he was a coordinator, he would stand a chance. He heard a sound from the other side of a large building to his right.

He looked and saw the girl standing in front of a large crater. He took a step forward and saw at the bottom of the crater, armor greyed out and broken in places, was his Mobile suit, the strike. "Why the hell is this here!" she yelled as she turned, having heard him walking behind her. She stopped as soon as she was him. "What the hell are you doing here?" she yelled running towards him. "Nice to see you too." Kira says, laughing at her reaction. The laughter stops when she punches him, "Shut up, you jackass! I can't believe that I was worried about you!" They were drawing a crowd, and the bald man, speaks, "You two know each other?" Kira nods, "We met at the ORB satellite Heliopolis. We got caught in the attack by ZAFT." She huffs, "Not like I asked you to save me!" Kira smirks, "I never said you did. After that, I was forced to pilot the strike." She looks shocked, "You pilot this thing? Why the hell are you-"she's about to punch him again, but Kira grabs her arm, twists it, and throws her to the ground. "I might have been a civilian before, but I'm still a soldier. You can't beat me."

The bulking man run at Kira and knocks him off her, sending him crashing next to the Strike. "You will not hurt Cagali!" He yells reaching for the Machine gun he has slung around his back. Kira jumps to his feet and gets into the Strike's cockpit. He starts it and runs a quick diagnostic, "Good, as long I don't run into any mobile suits I should be fine." The strike stands, and over the speakers, he says, "I've got a signal from the Archangel! I'm heading back!" He prays that they believe it. The townsfolk start shout for him to massacre ZAFT, until the bulking man yelled, "That's a lie! The Archangel landed in Josh-A! You're with ZAFT!" It takes a few seconds for what he's saying to sink in, and then the town raged. Half of them started to throw stones and the like, even a couple of grenades. Kira curses and the strikes boosters launch it through the air.

When he reached the outskirts of the town, he felt the Mobile suit sink. They were gaining on him. "Damn it! I can't move like this. In the rear view, he saw a large crowd of townsfolk were heading the opposite direction. "They must have some weapon cache nearby." Some of the terrorists chased after him, now armed with more weapons and yelling curses. Kira checks the power output, and found he was running out of power fast. He quickly brought up the OS and started to reprogram the contact pressure. "Judging from the speed I' m sinking, if I change it to negative twenty, I should be able to get away. It'll be hell to deal with later, nut in this case-"He inputs the changes and jumps out of the sand. He lands and runs. He checks the power and he got less than half his energy.

"Fuck, I used too much energy taking out those planes. I can't last much longer-"an explosion rocked the cockpit, dazing him slightly. The rear camera show that they aren't giving up. There are about ten tanks, and a dozen jeeps. On the jeeps, they start firing rockets and rpgs. With the Aile pack disabled, they'll over take him in no time. Kira gets an alert and turns his attention to the front monitor. There were seven Helicopters, all fully armed, with one of them having some kind of special equipment.

Kira takes aim at the copters, when he hears a voice over the radio, grabbled by static, "X105 strike, do you copy? This is the second interceptor squad from the Lesseps –"Kira can't believe his luck and sends back, "This is the Strike. "The copters open fire on the jeeps, cutting them off from the strike. A copter appears at the head of the other and hovers behind the strike, "Disengage the Aile striker pack. We'll test this new equipment pack now instead of later." Kira discards the damaged pack, and sends a linkage signal to the copter. The copter drops some equipment and the boosters push it into position.

Kira locks them in place, and takes a few moments to look over the new equipment. GAT X105 – Stealth Strike. Mirage Colloid dispensers, Twin lancer darts on each arm, beam saber, mines armed with Mirage Colloid and could be remotely, time, or sensor activated. Kira looks back and sees that two of the copter have been destroyed and three crashed. "I'll take it from here, fall back!" he says as he launches the darts into two of the tanks, destroying them and two more that were nearby. He sets the mines and leads the jeeps into the trap, destroying the remaining five and two of the tanks that followed. The remaining tanks start to retreat, but Kira knows that as a member of ZAFT he can't let Blue Cosmos go. He activates Mirage Colloid, then goes at full speed and cuts them off on the way back to the town. They stop to try and to convince the remaining people to take up arms. Kira slashes the tanks, destroying them and killing most of the drivers. Kira sees the remaining terrorists running towards the caves on the outskirts of the town, and launches the lancer dart into the cave. There was a massive explosion, causing half the mountain to collapse. Kira leaves the town, returning to the scene of the battle.

Kira found the crew of the copters searching through the wreckage of the downed aircrafts, trying to save those that could be. He climbed out of the cockpit, lowered himself to the ground, and ran over to the leader of the soldiers. She was a young woman, with long black haired tied up in a ponytail. "Thank you. You saved me." She turned and saluted, "No trouble, sir. I'm Rena Imelia, Commander of the Second interceptor squadron." Kira saluted, "Are you able to get in touch with anyone else?" She shook her head, "No, the N – Jammer level are too high. We might have to wait until tonight, and then send a copter back under cover of night." Kira thought for a moment, "How many copters are left?" she called over two of the soldiers and had a quick conversation with them. "We have three in working order and two more that we can get airborne." Kira nods, "Then I'll go. With the stealth strike's Mirage colloid, I'll be able to slip past them undetected. Once the copters are airborne, get them somewhere out of sight." She salutes, and sends one of the crew to find someplace they can lay low until he gets back.

Kira boards the strike and engages the Mirage Colloid. He inputs the coordinates of the Lesseps and heads in that direction. For over an hour, he moves through the desert, completely undetected, dodging Blue Cosmos patrols. His mobile suit is about to run out of power, when he finds a familiar signal on the Radar. He picks up the radio, "Nicol!" "Kira? Is that you?" he says in response. "Yeah, it's me. How is everyone?" Kira says smiling. "They're all out searching for you. I just transmitted your position so don't move. We'll be there." Kira nods "Go it. I've got the Stealth Strike, so I'll be under Mirage Colloid until you show up." "Got it, I'll tell the others. Be there in less than fifteen minutes." Nicol says, cutting off the connection.

Yzak shows up first, The Duel covered in scorch marks. Kira disengages Mirage Colloid and takes a step out of his hiding spot. Duel turns to him and the machine walks toward him, feet unsteady in the sand. Next is the Blitz, Nicol dismounts his machine and runs toward him, yelling, "Kira! Kira gets out and run to him, "Nicol! Thank god." Athrun flies by and lands next to them, his gundam, like the others sinking into the sand. Almost immediately afterwards, a four legged mobile suit came barreling through, stopping next to the Duel. A man got out, followed by a young woman with long black hair. "Glad to see that you made it. I'm Andrew Waltfeld. Judging from your mobile suit, I'm guessing you ran into an interceptor squad?"

Kira salutes, recognizing the name of his current commander, "Yes, sir. The second interceptor squadron found me when I was being chased by Blue Cosmos." "Where is the Second squad?" he inquired, still eyeing the Strike. "Over half the squad was destroyed or disabled. They stayed behind to gather the survivors, while I went to get help. I told them to find someplace to lie low until I got back, given that at least one Blue Cosmos group is nearby. " Waltfeld nodded, "Exactly the orders I'd have given. I noticed that your machine not have the same problem as the other three. Why not?" "I was forced to adjust the contact pressure variables in order to escape." He nods and turns away, talking on his radio.

About a minute later, he returns, "the third squad is on the way. Kira, since you know their last position, I'm placing you in command of the squad. Switch equipment when they arrive and bring back our boys." Kira salutes, "Sir, would I be able to take Athrun with me? I'm still rather new to this, and I'm not confident that I can lead a mission like this on my own." He nods, "that won't be a problem. While we wait for the third squad, why don't you correct the other machines?" Kira nods and starts working on the blitz, while Waltfeld talked to Athrun.

* * *

you'll have to wait and see how this whole thing has effected the crew of the archangel. R&R


End file.
